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Flemington, NJ, January 11, 2008 – Many people start their day by reading their horoscope. A smaller number literally run their lives by their horoscopes. An even smaller number consult astrologers and often pay large fees for a ‘reading.’ In fact, astrology is big business.
HCD Research using its mediacurves.com web site conducted a study among 2,424 Americans during January 10-11, to examine the predictive ability of one aspect of astrology. Do people born under a certain sign really have different abilities and attributes that correlate with their sign?
HCD Research asked participants to identify their birth dates and their occupations. Did their occupations differ in the ways that their astrological birth sign predicted?
In one word, the answer is “No.” After examining each person’s astrological sign and then looking at occupation, the results were statistically random. In order to give Astrology another chance, we then examined the astrological sign by the largest number of people in an occupation by zodiac sign, whether significantly different or not. While there were some differences, no differences were similar to the ones predicted by astrology. Most likely they occurred by chance.
Could we have done an even more stringent evaluation of occupations? Perhaps, but this evaluation was quite precise. Could we have gone to a larger sample? Yes, but it wouldn’t have made a difference. Could we have given this aspect of astrology a better chance in some way? We can’t speak for other aspects of astrology, but we gave the occupation connection a very fair shot.
Don’t give up reading your horoscopes, if you do. Enjoy them. But don’t use your astrological sign to select a career.
For detailed information on this study, please go to www.mediacurves.com The Media Curves web site provides the media and general public with a venue to view Americans’ perceptions of popular and controversial media events and advertisements.
Headquartered in Flemington, NJ, the company's services include traditional and web-based communications research. For additional information on HCD Research, access the company’s web site at www.hcdi.net or call HCD Research at 908-788-9393.
Editors/Reporters: For more information on the study, or to speak with Arthur Kover, Ph. D., consulting director, HCD Research, or Glenn Kessler, president and CEO, HCD Research, please contact Vince McGourty, HCD Research, at (908) 483-9121 or (vince.mcgourty@hcdi.net).
